Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, the literal truth of the Bible, apocalyptical prophecies, ...
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Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, the literal truth of the Bible, apocalyptical prophecies, gender roles, abortion, gay rights, sexual education, gun control, mass incarceration, the death penalty, torture, human rights, and war. The intense polarization of U.S. conservatives and liberals has become a key dimension of American exceptionalism—an idea widely misunderstood as American superiority. It is rather what makes America an exception, for better or worse. While exceptionalism once was largely a source of strength, it may now spell decline, as unique features of U.S. history, politics, law, culture, religion, and race relations foster grave conflicts and injustices. They also shed light on the peculiar ideological evolution of American conservatism, which long predated Trumpism. Anti-intellectualism, conspiracy-mongering, radical anti-governmentalism, and Christian fundamentalism are far more common in America than Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Drawing inspiration from Alexis de Tocqueville, Mugambi Jouet explores American exceptionalism’s intriguing roots as a multicultural outsider-insider. Raised in Paris by a French mother and Kenyan father, he then lived throughout America, from the Bible Belt to New York, California, and beyond. His articles have notably been featured in The New Republic, Slate, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, and Le Monde. He teaches at Stanford Law School.Less

Exceptional America : What Divides Americans from the World and from Each Other

Mugambi Jouet

Published in print: 2017-04-03

Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, the literal truth of the Bible, apocalyptical prophecies, gender roles, abortion, gay rights, sexual education, gun control, mass incarceration, the death penalty, torture, human rights, and war. The intense polarization of U.S. conservatives and liberals has become a key dimension of American exceptionalism—an idea widely misunderstood as American superiority. It is rather what makes America an exception, for better or worse. While exceptionalism once was largely a source of strength, it may now spell decline, as unique features of U.S. history, politics, law, culture, religion, and race relations foster grave conflicts and injustices. They also shed light on the peculiar ideological evolution of American conservatism, which long predated Trumpism. Anti-intellectualism, conspiracy-mongering, radical anti-governmentalism, and Christian fundamentalism are far more common in America than Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Drawing inspiration from Alexis de Tocqueville, Mugambi Jouet explores American exceptionalism’s intriguing roots as a multicultural outsider-insider. Raised in Paris by a French mother and Kenyan father, he then lived throughout America, from the Bible Belt to New York, California, and beyond. His articles have notably been featured in The New Republic, Slate, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, and Le Monde. He teaches at Stanford Law School.

In the Spring of 2009, the Tea Party emerged onto the American political scene. In the wake of Obama's election, as commentators proclaimed the “death of conservatism,” Tax Day rallies and Tea Party ...
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In the Spring of 2009, the Tea Party emerged onto the American political scene. In the wake of Obama's election, as commentators proclaimed the “death of conservatism,” Tax Day rallies and Tea Party showdowns at congressional town hall meetings marked a new and unexpected chapter in American conservatism. This book brings together leading scholars and experts on the American Right to examine a political movement that electrified American society. Topics addressed by the chapters include the Tea Party's roots in earlier mass movements of the Right and in distinctive forms of American populism and conservatism; the significance of class, race and gender to the rise and successes of the Tea Party; the effect of the Tea Party on the Republican Party; the relationship between the Tea Party and the Religious Right; and the contradiction between the grass-roots nature of the Tea Party and the established political financing behind it. The book provides detailed and often surprising accounts of the movement's development at local and national levels, and it addresses the relationship between the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement.Less

Steep : The Precipitous Rise of the Tea Party

Published in print: 2012-08-14

In the Spring of 2009, the Tea Party emerged onto the American political scene. In the wake of Obama's election, as commentators proclaimed the “death of conservatism,” Tax Day rallies and Tea Party showdowns at congressional town hall meetings marked a new and unexpected chapter in American conservatism. This book brings together leading scholars and experts on the American Right to examine a political movement that electrified American society. Topics addressed by the chapters include the Tea Party's roots in earlier mass movements of the Right and in distinctive forms of American populism and conservatism; the significance of class, race and gender to the rise and successes of the Tea Party; the effect of the Tea Party on the Republican Party; the relationship between the Tea Party and the Religious Right; and the contradiction between the grass-roots nature of the Tea Party and the established political financing behind it. The book provides detailed and often surprising accounts of the movement's development at local and national levels, and it addresses the relationship between the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement.